In May 2005, we were featured in a new sports / fitness magazine, Glucose. The article re-print is available below (in pdf format) for you to read.
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Big Ride Summary


June 2005

We are excited that the summer of 2005 will one that will be long remembered in our lives. For Stan, this summer promises to offer a sabbatical and a challenge of a different sort having been wrapped up in office life now for almost 20 years. For Cheryl, the summer will be committed to the memory of her mother, who died of lung cancer when she was only 14, hoping that, in some small way, her contribution can avoid another daughter’s loss in the future. Together, we will be pedaling on a tandem bicycle for seven weeks on the American Lung Association® of Washington's Big Ride Across America!

Starting in Seattle, WA on June 28, we will travel 3,300 miles with 35 other cyclists from all over America and a support team from the Lung Association. The journey gets us close to home as we ride right through Cleveland, OH on August 4 before finishing in Washington DC on August 13.

The Cause

Thanks to the generous support of family and friends, we have already raised over $13,000, for the American Lung Association in their fight to improve life, one breath at a time:

•  By bringing greater attention to and fighting increasing air pollution in our area.

•  By helping to prevent lung diseases such as asthma, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, lung cancer, tuberculosis and cystic fibrosis. These various forms of lung disease account for 32% of infant deaths, making it the number one killer of babies under the age of one.

•  By helping to reduce tobacco use, especially among young people, which is responsible for 419,000 deaths in the US each year. Tobacco causes more deaths than cocaine, heroin, alcohol, homicide, suicide, traffic accidents, fires and AIDS combined.

For anyone who is interested in adding to our cause by making a contribution, donations can be made online at www.bigride.org – under “Sponsor a 2005 Big Rider”.  Or click this direct link.

Our Journal

We plan to do our best to provide you an online journal and pictorial summary of our adventure. Access at times to the internet we understand might be limited so our apologies in advance if we are not able to keep up daily with our adventure. We have set up several pages within this website to help share the adventure with those from back home.

We are both very excited (OK, and a little anxious) over what the adventure we have committed to holds in store for us. We have logged 1,400 training miles on our tandem in preparation for the ride, but you can never be too sure if you have enough training. Time will soon tell once we get started.

Again we encourage you to share in the adventure with us and would welcome any notes of encouragement you would like to offer. We can be contacted at the following e-mail addresses:

Stan:  stankasmarcak@yahoo.com
Cheryl:  Cheryl_big_ride@yahoo.com

...or by cell phone for that matter (this is where having the Nationwide plan really means something!), at 440-655-2430.

We both feel very privileged to be a part of the continuing efforts of the American Lung Association, and to help support their mission to eliminate lung disease. Thanks again for your support and remember, every breath counts.

Stan & Cheryl